


I'm Not Scared, Man, You're Scared

by thenthekneehits



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Awkward Boners, Cohabitation, College, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 00:06:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4500054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenthekneehits/pseuds/thenthekneehits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which two stupid boys turn weak, there is a spider, and <em>no cuddling</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Not Scared, Man, You're Scared

**Author's Note:**

> Slight warning about spiders. Nothing graphic of any sort, but they are a motive in this story, so if you have a phobia or something, watch out.

”Rhett?” came a whisper from above, right as the man was at the edge of sleep.

Rhett opened his eyes just in time to see Link’s fingers attempting to tap his shoulder. He slapped them away with a gruff “what”.

Despite the dark, Rhett could see Link’s upside down head hanging off of the top bunk, gravity making his hair stand. “There’s a spider,” he announced.

“What, you want me to kill it? No. I hate insects.” Upon seeing the opening of Link’s mouth, he added again for good measure, “No.”

“I didn’t say that! I just felt like you should know. This is a PSA. If it’s up here, it can come down there.”

“Just kill it,” Rhett grumbled.

“With what? My bare hands? Get spider juice on my skin?”

“Use your blanket.”

“Then there’ll be spider on my blanket!” Link’s grimacing face was something to see, especially upside down and all.

Rhett swatted at Link’s head to get him to shut up and go away, but Link dodged and his head disappeared back onto his own bed. Mission accomplished, then.

It was blessedly quiet for a few seconds, but Rhett was wrong to get his hopes up. A car passed by on the street, lighting up the room for a moment, and Link called out, “Oh, oh, oh, it’s coming down there. It’s crawling down.”

“Just kill it!” Rhett replied, now wide awake and a tiny bit frightened. “How big is it?” he had to add.

“Pretty bi-“ was all Link got out before Rhett let out a single-voweled scream, throwing the blanket off of himself and falling on his ass on their dirty dorm room floor.

“It’s on my bed!” His voice was a little breathless. “It fell onto my bed!”

Link began to giggle and Rhett’s fear turned back into annoyance. He got up off the floor and advanced back towards the bed, grabbing onto the edge of Link’s bunk. “I’m coming. Move.” He hoisted himself up and Link automatically rolled to the opposite side to make space.

Rhett was glad Link was on the side of the wall because that was where the spider would climb, and also because Link moved in his sleep and the boy had already fallen off his bed before — the chances of that happening were too damn high if he only had half the bed to roll around on. After he’d fallen Rhett had suggested a safety railing, but Link wouldn’t agree to it. Probably because it’d mean he couldn’t dangle his head off the edge of the bed and bother Rhett anymore.

“Go back to your own bed, you’re massive,” Link complained.

“You shouldn’t have woken me up!” Link had started it!

“First off, you weren’t asleep, and second off, then you’d have a spider crawling on your vulnerable sleeping body right now.” Then he added, “At least get your own pillow.”

“The spider could be on my pillow! I can’t see it ‘cause it’s so dark.” Rhett grabbed onto Link’s pillow and dragged it towards himself, Link’s words having served as a reminder.

They fought for the pillow until Rhett pinned Link’s arm on one half of it and set his own shoulder heavily on the other. He couldn’t see an awful lot of Link’s face, until another car passing by made the man’s disgruntled expression clear again.

“Just take half of it,” Rhett mumbled, dragging his body lower to rest his head on the claimed side of the pillow.

Link huffed but eventually turned his back to Rhett and the man took it as a sign to let his arm go. Link let his head fall onto the pillow with force enough to bounce the mattress a little.

After a moment of silence, Link whispered, voice once again low, “What if it climbs back up?”

Rhett wanted to slap him. “Then it’ll eat your face first,” he mumbled without sympathy.

“Should we turn on the lights and go kill it?” Link’s whispers were getting more anxious.

“Then its relatives might bear a grudge and come for us in our sleep. It can’t be the only spider in this room,” Rhett said ominously, with the strange desire to make Link more frightened.

“That’s stupid and it’s still scaring me.” Link sounded disappointed in himself, and Rhett saw from the back of his head that he was rubbing his face into the pillow.

“It used to scare me when I was a kid, too,” Rhett admitted.

Link fumbled around until he’d managed to turn his body to face Rhett. “They see everything, too. They have eight eyes,” he whispered heatedly.

“They have eight legs, not eyes.”

“They have eight eyes too! They need to see what their legs are doing.”

“You’d need four eyes just to see what your two legs are doing, most of the time. Spiders should have 16 eyes with that logic.”

“Har har. I swear they have eight eyes.”

“Their eyesight is probably really bad anyway, so I don’t think it matters.”

“Do they have six legs or eight? I’m getting confused now.” Their whispers kept getting quieter and Link’s face kept inching closer.

“Eight, for sure. They need to weave the web with the hands and then they walk with the six.”

“Don’t they weave it with their butt?”

“They poop the web?”

Link’s giggles were so soft they were near soundless, but Rhett felt the vibrations of his body well enough to need no sound. His face involuntarily broke into a grin in response to his friend. Link’s hand, in a loose fist at his chest, shook and brushed against Rhett, feeling tingly.

“Imagine if you could poop a web,” Rhett said with an attempt to keep his friend laughing.

“I can’t believe we know nothing about spiders,” Link wondered, Rhett’s attempt going ignored but the smile on his face sticking.

Rhett couldn’t think of anything to say, so he grunted quietly in agreement.

They fell into silence, small smiles on their faces, the actual spider forgotten during their conversation. Link’s eyelids soon began to droop, Rhett losing sight of the small slivers of white glow that hinted at Link’s expressions. When he chose to sleep as well, fixing his position in order to do so, the tip of his nose softly brushed against Link’s. That’s where his head was comfortable, so it’s where he fell asleep.

Rhett woke up once during the night. It was slow and gentle, so much so that he never even opened his eyes. He'd stirred to the touch of wetness at his neck, and he didn't feel the need to open his eyes because he had instantly known it to be Link's open mouth. He felt Link's warm breath at the thin skin and let himself fall back to sleep.

When Rhett woke up in the morning, however, the room was bright enough that his eyes opened automatically, catching a glimpse of the ceiling and reminding him that he was in the wrong bunk. He then closed them again in order to savor the feeling of lying in bed after a long rest, his body like limp, warm spaghetti. Soft spaghetti. Spaghetti that was squashed in a few places; his left shoulder and both his thighs. A bit of gentle wiggling informed him that those had to be the parts of his body that were covered by parts of his best friend's body.

The space between his neck and shoulder felt itchy and prickly, but once he realized that it was from the stubble at Link's jaw — the boy's beard grew far too quickly — heat spread into the area and discomfort was replaced with strangely pleasant tingling.

The new feeling somehow urged Rhett to open his eyes and confirm its source. He did so while slowly turning his face to the left. His nose came in contact with Link's fluffed mess of dark hair, and he figured the tickle of it was the reason why his smile attempted to detach his cheeks from his face. Or that it was at least most of the reason. A part of the reason.

While he pondered this, Link began to stir. Rhett first received a faceful of hair, then felt Link move away from him. He had enough time to begin feeling strangely thin and weightless as a result before the back of a hand smacked right onto his face and smushed his poor over-sensitive nose.

"Link!" he wailed.

As a response he received slobbering noises followed by an extended and confused "eh".

Rhett wasn't capable of vocally expressing his anger well enough so early in the morning, so he turned on his side and grabbed onto Link's middle to attempt to physically shake the point home.

Link flailed and whined out unintelligible words, waking up fully. His wild arms gave a valiant effort of pushing Rhett off, but didn't succeed in anything but making the man more aggravated. Rhett clambered on top of him, letting his entire weight push Link down into the mattress and forcefully still him.

"What?" The first proper word Link had managed to utter so far.

"You hit my face. You smacked my face. I'm dead," Rhett explained, reveling in how well he'd calmed Link's body down.

"You're not doing this right now. Sorry I hit your face, I was asleep, and I'd like to take this chance to remind you that _this is my bed_. Get off." Link seemed to be perfectly lucid now, but his voice was still low and hoarse.

"I'm dead."

"Stop."

When there was another attempted escape, Rhett had to grab Link's arms and glue them against the boy's sides by fencing them with his own arms.

"Rhett..."

Saliva built up in Rhett's dry mouth and he swallowed hard. Link's body was unnaturally rigid under him, and he knew why.

He knew they both felt it even though they were ignoring it. Ignoring was the courteous thing to do, especially because it's not like it meant anything. It happened all the time and Rhett hadn't even paid attention to his own before it'd come in contact with Link's hips.

Rhett started becoming scared and unsure of whether it did mean something for him, however, when he found himself tentatively wanting to do something he shouldn't. It quickly soothed him when he figured out that it was merely in response to a warm body, not to his best friend.

His best friend's skin was smooth and warm, and Rhett hardly even felt the small patch of thin hair on Link's chest, so that didn't manage to dissipate anything. Rhett only felt it a little.

He was waiting for the right time to get up — the point at which he didn't do it too early and seem affected, or too late and seem...just, wrong. For some reason, though, he wanted to linger. He felt comfortable and drowsy, and he liked having Link, vulnerable, underneath him. He'd always liked it. There was a strange thrill in it, especially now that Link was a grown man. It made Rhett feel powerful, like he could force a person to stay with him for good. It felt unhealthy, saying it like that, but it was probably the truth.

The pressure of his own body against Link's felt good, relaxing it in most places and tensing it in others — his arms were still rigid, prepared to keep Link's limbs in place, and his hips were stuffed with tightness that had nowhere to escape.

He felt Link let out a heavy, shaky breath and realized he must have been holding it the whole time. Rhett scrambled off the boy, knowing he'd stayed in the position too long after all.

Time to ease the tension. "I'm hungry," he managed to utter. It was relatively normal.

"Eat, then," Link responded, slightly coldly, head turned away.

Rhett moved a little further away from his friend, all the way to the edge of the bunk. He got the feeling that Link seemed to need the space, as much as he usually liked physical contact. It was a sign that things had probably gone too far, and Rhett felt a slow build of panic.

The small bunk didn't allow for much space between them, and it felt like both too little and too much. Rhett wanted to either jump off the bed or grab onto Link again. He wasn't sure which would fix things. He never knew which Link needed at a given time, contact or space. He wished he'd learn someday.

There was still a party in his pants, and his bare chest began to make him feel exposed despite the fact that it was nothing new to Link. Something about the way it'd touched Link's skin made his own skin feel vulnerable.

"I wonder if there are any dorm rooms with queen beds," Link mumbled, breaking the quiet moment.

"For what? Couples? Or one person? That's some luxury," Rhett responded, relieved by the dissipating tension.

"I dunno. Either."

"I don't think there are rooms for couples. It'd be good if there were."

"Yeah, I think so too."

"We don't even have girls," Rhett reminded him.

"Speak for yourself."

Rhett lifted himself up onto an elbow so he could see Link's face. "Really?" After a pause, "You thinking you'd wanna room with her?"

"Nah, it's not like that, man. Just popped into my head."

"You didn't tell me you were seeing a girl."

"Only seen her a couple times. Saw a movie and kissed."

"Which one?"

"Which movie?"

"Which _girl_."

"She's a friend of Clayton's. We don't have the same classes or anything and I don't think you've seen her."

"Clayton's weird. She pretty?" Of course she was, Link got all the pretty girls. Link was pretty.

Link gave a satisfied smirk and replied, "Yeah."

"Linkster," Rhett drawled low, and Link giggled, fiddling with the edge of the blanket and pulling it up further to cover all of his chest, hiding nipples that Rhett hadn't been looking at but which he'd been distinctly aware of.

Something about it all drew Rhett in and he found himself gravitating towards the center of the bed again. Link's movement had reminded Rhett of his half-naked body, hidden underneath the one blanket, at touchable distance, heat and soft parts and hard parts, all something Rhett's skin needed to feel again. He knew that the blanket must have been confusing him, because he felt like it was a barrier that somehow allowed him to lean over and reach towards the body next to him, as if the fact that the movement couldn't be seen made it okay.

When his fingertips touched Link's rib, they felt a shiver that reminded him this was _not okay_. He got to spend a second battling about whether to draw his hand away or come up with a good excuse before Link very obviously moved closer to him and subsequently pressed more of the rogue hand against himself. Rhett let it fall flat against the contour of Link's side and both their bodies relaxed. Rhett's arm rested loosely on the bed between them and he made himself comfortable on his side, bending his knees so they brushed against Link's legs.

"Was there a party tonight?" Link asked.

"Don' think so."

"A Saturday without a party. Is there enough cereal?"

"Yeah. How did your mind move there so quick?" Rhett gave a chuckle.

"Till next week?"

"Yes, Link. There's enough."

"We need to do laundry."

"Not today."

"We have the day off, when else are we gonna?"

"Let's go on a drive." Rhett wasn't sure where the idea came from.

Link lowered his eyebrows to a judging tilt. "A drive? Drive where?"

Rhett shrugged.

"You don't want to do laundry that bad?" Link wondered, his tone softening to a more amused one.

Rhett braved the risk of his heart combusting — he kept seeing his left pec give jumps to the fast beat — and moved his hand across the span of Link's chest to grab onto the opposite side instead, making sure his palm didn't brush against inappropriate parts. His body leaned closer to Link in the process.

"Gas costs a lot, you know," was all Link said, but it was as good of an acceptance as any.

Rhett saw Link smiling, hair whipping in the wind coming through an open car window. Somewhere there weren't people around.

"Feel like driving," he pressed.

"But where?"

"Somewhere there aren't people around."

"Will there be spiders instead?"

"There could be. You'll have to kill them this time."

"I'll let them live so long as they don't get too close to us."

Rhett's bent elbow brushed against the top of Link's stomach as he laughed silently.

"I hope the one from last night eats Gregg when he gets back," Link stated, still vindictive over what their roommate had done that Tuesday.

"We should prank him. Surprise him when he gets here."

"You already forgot about the drive?"

"Nah, drive first."

"Where to?"

"Third time you've asked that." Then, upon realizing it must be Link's anxiety speaking, Rhett hastily planned, "Go down and get burgers for breakfast, then drive down that road that starts a couple blocks away, the kinda squiggly one?"

"It goes to the middle of nowhere."

Rhett smirked wide. "Yeah."

"If we run out of gas a few miles down, I'll kill ya." When Link saw Rhett's smile remained, he added, "I'll place you on the ground and, and gather a hundred spiders and let them crawl all over you till they bite you to death."

"Cool."

Link groaned and began to move around in a way that indicated he was planning on sitting up. Rhett panicked, suddenly faced with the fact that he wanted Link to stay where he was. He only had one last card to pull.

He bore his fingertips into Link's side and heard the man squeal. Rhett tickled him for a long time, all the way until his flailing waned from exhaustion. He knew that'd make Link want to stay in bed afterwards, his muscles spent to jelly.

He also knew he'd pushed things to the limit, so when he finished his quest, he lay down on his back, several inches of bed between him and Link. He still felt Link's heaving breaths from the way they made the mattress undulate.

Lying there, eyes on the dirt-stained ceiling of _their_ dorm room, hearing Link's breathing, Rhett felt so insanely happy, so exhilarated, so content that his chest and throat were stuffed with what felt like warm, spreading lava. His fingertips were heated close to numbness.

“Cheeseburger,” Link mumbled a while later.

Excitement widened Rhett's eyes. They were gonna drive somewhere together.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr: [thenthekneehits](http://thenthekneehits.tumblr.com)


End file.
